You may have heard the term “social license” floating around over the last few years. Certainly, some great trainers and authors have already written articles on the subject, and organizations such as the FEI have even created an independent commission for that purpose. But what exactly does the term mean?
Social License is essentially a sort of permission to operate, given implicitly by the community or society at large. An organization or industry has a certain perception in society about what it is that they are doing, and society forms an opinion based on this perception and says, “we are ok with this, carry on.” If the opinion that most of society has of an industry or organization is good, members of society may show support by attending events, supporting financially, enrolling in programs, or sharing stories verbally or on social media. If society is neutral, they may just say “I don’t really know enough about that to have an opinion either way.” If society deems an industry or organization to be inappropriate or unacceptable in some way, they have the power to take it down by discontinuing support, vocally protesting, or even lobbying at the political level.
In my opinion, the horse industry is currently somewhere in the middle of those examples in terms of our social license. I don’t think that equestrian sport is on many non-horse folk’s minds outside of events such as the Olympics, at least here in Canada. You don’t see many non-horsey folks at local shows (unless they are related in some way with one of the competitors). The one exception to this might be the racing industry, but even then, it is certainly not as woven into the non-equestrian sector of society as it is in some countries.
With such limited exposure to, and thus feedback from society at large, the horse industry has been developing in a bit of a silo, which I think has led to slower innovations in some areas than might otherwise be the case. As a whole, our society has come a long way in terms of how we view animals, and thus how we treat them. Recent surveys show that as many as 73% of Canadian households have at least one pet, with 54% of Millennials viewing themselves as “pet parents” vs “pet owners”. This shift towards thinking of pets as a part of the family must in part explain the popularity of gentler and science-based training methods, as well as terms such as “enrichment” and “emotional well-being” being part of the lexicon around how we care for and interact with our animals. The second most googled question about dogs is “do dogs dream?”, showing that we have a curiosity about what our animals are thinking and feeling, when it wasn’t that many years ago that animals were primarily viewed as possessions and beasts of burden whose sole purpose was to assist mankind with our needs.
If you were to ask the average horse owner how they view their horse, the answer would most likely be as a pet, a partner a friend or even family, and not as a, object, a servant, or just livestock. When we look at some of the standard practices in the horse industry, however, there is often incongruence between the way we look at horses, and the way we treat them. Would we consider locking our friends in a small box, alone, with no mental stimulation, for upwards of 12 hours a day? If our teammate on our sports team was struggling with their performance, would we force them to wear painful equipment to shut them down when they tried to speak up about their struggle? If our family member was having trouble participating in a family activity due to chronic pain, would we tell them they are being a jerk, and make fun of them on social media? I suspect most people were able to answer a resounding “no” to those examples, and yet we do all this and worse to our horses regularly with many of the management, training practices, and mindsets that are still so common in the horse industry. Practices which have remained largely unchanged since the turn of the last century. Because we are so desensitized to some of these practices, many of us don’t even realize just how twisted it is.
Here's where equestrians could benefit from getting off of our “high horse” so to speak and listening to input from non-horse folks to give us some perspective. Of course, there is value in years of experience and training to help us understand horses, and there are things that horse newbies just don’t get (how many of us have been asked by a horrified passer-by how we could be so cruel as to blindfold our horses when they are turned out with flymasks on in the summer?). Where there is value in input from outsiders, is that they haven’t been desensitized to so many of the less-than-humane or ideal practices that have become so normalized for us that we may not even see them. A perfect example of this was the equestrian portion of the pentathlon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. While many equestrians were appalled by the apparent lack of skill and teamwork between many of the horse and rider pairings, the moment that made the news and had the public at large in an uproar was when the German team coach reached over the fence and punched Saint Boy to get him to go forward after he had been refusing fences and balking. For many of us, seeing a horse get hit, or punched is nothing new. There could certainly be an argument for questioning how much damage a human fist could even do to a 1,000 lb animal. I think though that the reaction of dismay from the public gives us a chance to step back and question the mindset around choosing an act of physical punishment to reprimand a horse who was very clearly demonstrating that he was completely overwhelmed. If we are forced to explain the reasoning, and the science behind our methods to those who do not understand, maybe it will give us a chance to first make sure that our reasons can be explained, and supported by science, and everything we know about animal welfare.
When confronted with the possibility that we may be inadvertently causing our equine partners harm, our reaction is often one of defense, denial, or trying to dismiss or gaslight the person pointing out what we might be doing wrong. I think for the most part, nobody sets out to intentionally cause their horse mental or physical distress. This pushback when questioned is a completely normal reaction, but it is important to note that is just that: a reaction. It is our way of protecting ourselves from having to think about some tough things and feel some tough feelings when we reflect on some of the ways we treat horses, and may have been taught to treat them for a very long time. When we react to criticism this way, it shuts down any chance for meaningful discussion, and widens the chasm between the person questioning, and the person being questioned. Each settle more firmly into their camp of “my way is the right way”. There are many such camps built around hot-button topics such as the age at which horses are started under saddle, desensitizing techniques, types of bits and equipment, and more. The trouble with digging ourselves into these encampments is that it becomes more and more difficult to get ourselves out of them. But how can we tell whose camp is in fact the “right” one? I think we need to let the horses tell us. From smaller signs such as our horses coming up to meet us at the gate when it’s time to go to work, or horses standing calm and relaxed in the cross ties vs restless and pinning their ears or biting. To bigger signs such as how our horse’s soundness is holding up over time. There is no reason for many horses to be having to retire at middle age, if the training programs we are using are fair and beneficial to the horse. We owe it to our equine friends to continue our own education in all aspects of their care, management, and training, and to work with reputable and knowledgeable service providers to help us fill in the blanks. We need to acknowledge that sometimes we are too close to a situation to see it in perspective, and that if someone questions something about our methods it is an opportunity to step back, reassess, and be prepared to change if our horse needs us to change, rather than to react with defensiveness or dismissiveness.
If we can show that we are doing all these things, and that whatever methods we are using we are always putting the horse’s best interest first and foremost, we will be able to prove to society at large that our beloved equine industry deserves a place in our modern world. If we cannot show that we are actively growing and changing our methods as new research around care and behavior comes out, and are always prioritizing our horses well-being above all else, and treating them as sentient beings and not tools to be used solely for our own enjoyment or profit, then we just might find that we start to lose our social license, and thus our ability to have a horse industry to be a part of, and what a sad day that would be.
A summary of the World Horse Welfare’s scientific review of the threats to equestrian sport’s social license to operate can be found here: https://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/what-we-do/research/what-is-social-licence-to-operate
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